Types and Shapes of Syllabus

Week 5
 REVIEW
What is syllabus?
• In Wilkins' (1981) words, syllabuses are
"specifications of the content of language teaching
which have been submitted to some degree of
structuring or ordering with the aim of making
teaching and learning a more effective process."

• Syllabus is "a plan of what is to be achieved through

our teaching and our students' learning" (Breen,
1984a) while its function is "to specify what is to be
taught and in what order" (Prabhu, 1984).
 REVIEW
What is syllabus?
• Hutchinson and Waters (1987:80)
define syllabus as at its simplest level “as a
statement of what is to be learnt”.

• Yalden (1987: 87) says that syllabus as a

"summary of the content to which learners
will be exposed".
 REVIEW
What is syllabus?
In simple words, a language teaching syllabus
involves the combination of subject matter (what
to teach) and linguistic matter (how to teach).
It actually performs as a guide for both teacher
and learner by providing some goals to be
accomplished.
Syllabus deals with linguistic theory and theories
of language learning and how they are utilized
in the classroom.
 Syllabus Design
Syllabus design is thought to be based
essentially on a decision about the 'units' of
classroom activity, and the sequence in which
they are to be performed (Robinson, 1998).
 Types of Syllabus?
• Structural/ Grammatical
• Situational
• Topical
• Functional
• Notional
• Skills
• Task
• Etc
 FOCUS
1. Grammatical/ Structural
2. Situational
3. Functional
4. Topic/ Content based
 Grammatical/ Structural Syllabus
Characteristics:
1. The most common syllabus type
2. The most traditional syllabus type
3. It’s based on the assumption that Language consists of sets of rules
and patterns. Thus, Learning language is learning to understand and
work with the rules
4. Consists of grammar points such as: simple present active, simple
present passive, -ing form, etc.
5. Provides learners with a systematic description of the grammatical
generative core of the language (the strength)
6. Centred on grammar forms (the strength)
7. Cannot provide learners with the understanding of the
communicative use of the language (the weakness)
 Example
The Grammatical syllabus of MacDonald (1981) :

Lesson 1 has drilled the copula and adjective

combination
She is happy
Lesson 2 Introduces the –ing form
She is driving the car
Lesson 3 Reintroduces existential There
There is a man standing near the car
 Functional/Notional Syllabus
Characteristics
1. Having the influence on language teaching in
1970s
2. Functional refers to social behaviours that
represent the intention of the speaker or writer,
for example, advising, warning, threatening, etc.
3. Notional refers to categories of human thinking
expressed through language, such as time,
frequency, duration, gender, number, location, etc.
4. Centred on the language in use/communicative
purposes/functions (the strength)
 Functional/ Notional Syllabus
Characteristics:
5. Provides learners with realistic, everyday and real-
world language (the strength)
6. Unable to provide learners with systematic
conceptual framework of the language so that
learners don’t know how to organise their
knowledge of the language (the weakness)
7. Functions and forms very often can’t be defined
and made together easily, it’s complicated and
involving many things. So, to pair one function and
one form is not as simply as adding one and one to
become two (the weakness)
 Example
The Notional-Functional syllabus:

Lesson 1 Personal Identification Identifying

Lesson 2 Health and Welfare Reporting
Lesson 3 Food and Drink Greeting people
 Situational syllabus
Characteristics
1. Situational refers to the contexts in which language and
behaviour occur in the real world
2. ‘Situation’ becomes one of the important things that is
always taken into a account during a syllabus designing
process
3. Involving the relationship between language and context
(the strength)
4. Aspects of a ‘situation’ are concerned with
The setting (where?)
The participants (who?)
Relevant objects within the setting (what?)
 Situational Syllabus
Chracteristics
5. After the situation is selected, a syllabus can be
devised based on the language associated with the
situation concerned, with the emphasis being on
getting things done rather than learning the
language system
6. Defining ‘situation’ is not easy because it can be
very broad or very specific. Thus,
specifying/selecting ‘situation’ with precision is
needed (the weakness)
 Example
The situational syllabus:
Lesson 1 Ordering and paying
Helloes and Goodbyes
Ordering a drink
Simple numbers and money
Lesson 2 Shopping around
Buying an ice-cream
Buying food for a picnic
Buying stamps
Buying a wallet
Content based syllabus
Characteristics:
1. Based on the subject matter rather than
language criteria
2. Integrate skills
Example of Content Based Syllabus
Syllabus for ESP, but not all ESP books using
Content Based Syllabus.
MIXED SYLLABUS Is Possible
• It is mentioned that mixed syllabuses occur when
authors choose to mix two or more types of
syllabuses together. And that there is nothing
wrong with the “complexity that results from
mixing syllabuses.”

• Richards, et al. (2005) claim that a functional

syllabus parallels the grammar syllabus in the
course.
Syllabi are not totally distinct from each other. All
actual language teaching syllabuses are
integrated product of two or more of the types
of syllabi.
Although each type can be employed on its own,
in practice, these syllabuses rarely occur
independently of each other.
For a particular course, one type of syllabus
usually dominates, while other types of content
might be integrated with it.
Shapes or Formats of Syllabus
 Shapes of syllabus
Dubin and Olshtain (1997: 51) present five possible types:

1.Linear
2. Modular
3. Cyclical
4. Matrix
5. The story-line
 SHAPE OF SYLLABUS
1. THE LINEAR FORMAT

a. For grammar and structures

b. Linguistic and pedagogical principles
determine the order
c. Sequencing and grading are important
d. Teachers cannot change the order of units or
skip any – careful grading will be affected
e. Discrete element content
Example: linear format
Unit 12. Asking for information
• Grammar: How old is …?
• Where’s …..from?
•
Unit 13: Giving complement
• Grammar: What color is …?
• What a …….!
 SHAPE OF SYLLABUS
2. THE MODULAR FORMAT
• The modular format is well suited to courses
which integrate thematic or situational
contents. Academically oriented units are
integrated.

a. Integrates thematic with skills orientation

b. Objectives are flexible
 SHAPE OF SYLLABUS
3. THE CYCLICAL FORMAT
a. Enables teachers and students to work with
the same topic more than once
b. Level of difficulty/complexity increases
c. New subject matter should not be introduced
then forgotten
d. New subject matter should be reintroduced
 SHAPE OF SYLLABUS

4. THE MATRIX FORMAT

a. Gives users maximum flexibility to select
topics from a table of contents
b. Suited to situational content
 SHAPE OF SYLLABUS
• 5. THE STORY-LINE FORMAT
WILKINS (1976)

“have the effect of ensuring thematic continuity and of

helping resolve questions of the ordering of
categories in relation to one another”

Maintaining coherence for notional/functional syllabus

• The story-line format is basically a narrative. It is of a

different type than the ones mentioned and it could
be used in conjunction with any of them.
- It isn’t based on the level of the difficulty and
complexity
- It based on the story – line that is designed for
a particular lesson time

- Example
 Game
1. Permainan dilakukan dalam grup berisi 3 mahasiswa
2. Kenakan nomor punggung anda masing-masing
3. Dalam kelompok anda, tentukan Pemain 1, Pemain 2 dan
Juri
4. Permainan akan berlangsung sebanyak 3 sesi, masing-
masing 20 menit
5. Pada setiap sesi akan dilakukan pergantian pemain dan
juri
6. Setiap pergantian sesi akan ditandai dengan bunyi alarm
7. Setiap kelompok akan mendapatkan 1 set kartu, 1 lembar
skor dan 1 kunci jawaban
8. Tuliskan nama dan nomor punggung ketiga pemain dalam
kolom yang sudah disediakan
9. Kocoklah kartu selama 2-3 menit, lalu letakkan ditengah dengan sisi
polos diatas
10. Tugas pemain 1 dan 2 adalah secara bergantian mengambil kartu
yang yang ada ditumpukan, memahami dan membaca nyaring
pernyataan yang tertulis di dalam kartu lalu menyatakan pernyataan
yang ada di kartu tersebut termasuk dalam type atau shape silabus
yang mana (diantara 9 type dan shape yang sudah diterangkan)
11. Juri bertugas memegang kunci jawaban, menyimak jawaban dari
pemain 1 maupun 2 dan menyatakan apakah jawaban yang diberikan
betul atau salah berdasarkan kunci jawaban
12. Jika jawaban benar, juri menulis skor 1 di lembar skor.
13. Jika jawaban salah juri tidak memberi skor, tetapi harus
memberitahukan jawaban yang benar berdasarkan kunci jawaban
14. Jumlah total jawaban dari ketiga pemain akan ditotal setelah sesi
ke-3 selesai
15. Akan diambil satu pemenang kelompok dan satu pemenang kelas
 Sources
• Dubin, F and E.Olshtain. 1990. Course Design:
Developing Programs and Materials for
Language Learning. Cambridge: CUP.

• Nunan (2004). TBLT

• Nunan. Syllabus Design
• http://www-
01.sil.org/lingualinks/LANGUAGELEARNING/M
angngYrLnggLrnngPrgrm/HowToDesignALangu
ageLearningSy.htm
• http://www.eltweekly.com/elt-
newsletter/2011/02/82-research-article-
types-of-syllabuses-in-language-teaching-
%E2%80%93-eslefl-context-by-shabnum-
iftikhar/